A War Over The Future of Judaism Rages in This Small Long Island Community - U.S. News

9/29/2019 A war over the future of Judaism rages in this small Long Island community - U.S. News - Haaretz.
com
Israel News All
Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians
Shlomit Metz-Poolat with a copy of the Long Island Jewish World newspaper that was withdrawn from local restaurants,
August 2019. Credit: Gili Getz
A War Over the Future
of Judaism Rages in
This Small Long Island
Community
West Hempstead’s Jews pride
themselves on their ‘live and let live’
attitude — but their rabbis’ hard-line
response to the LGBTQ community
has infuriated many. An unbelievable
tale of love, hate and shuls in kosher
Chinese restaurants
By Danielle Ziri (New York) | Sep 29, 2019
Send me email alerts
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-war-over-the-future-of-judaism-rages-in-this-small-long-island-community-1.7908007?fbclid=IwAR1d… 1/25
9/29/2019 A war over the future of Judaism rages in this small Long Island community - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
352 Israel News All

Tweet 3 Zen Subscribe
NEW YORK — As the world marked the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall riots in late June, Haaretz published an article in which
five U.S.-Jewish LGBTQ leaders reflected on the milestone. It was a
story that, just a few weeks later, would spark controversy among a
small Jewish community on Long Island.
>> Election results are in. Subscribe now save 30%
In mid-July, and unbeknownst to Haaretz, the article was reprinted

in the Long Island Jewish World, a local newspaper that is
published every weekend. Plastered on the front page was the
picture of a Israel
transgender Jewish activist draped in Israeli and Pride
News All
flags. Rosh
Elections Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians
Copies of the Long Island Jewish World at an eatery in West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz
But the story seemingly didn’t sit well with some in the suburb of
West Hempstead. Haaretz has learned from multiple sources that at
least two local rabbis ordered the publication be removed from
kosher businesses and institutions, as well as from their own
synagogues.
NOW PLAYING ⟨ 2 of 27 ⟩ ▌▌ HD
Don't Miss! - 9/29
NEXT Star Wars Mania! Star Wars Merchandise Reve…
Stacks of the newspaper were removed from local restaurants and at

least 150 copies were returned to the newspaper’s offices, at the
behest of Rabbi Elon Soniker, of Congregation Anshei Shalom, and
Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer of Young Israel of West Hempstead.
While it is important
Israel NewstoAll
note that both rabbis vehemently deny any
involvement in the matter, Haaretz has discovered that the attempt
to censor the article is part of a larger pattern of behavior from the
community’s Orthodox rabbis toward LGBTQ issues.
Related Articles
● Stonewall at 50: Jewish LGTBQ activists in NYC
reflect on how life has changed for the community
● 'It feels like my own school hates me': Yeshiva
University students protest for LGBTQ
representation
● 'There's going to be a shooting': As this Jewish
community grows, so do anti-Semitic threats
It is a stance that has alarmed many West Hempstead Jews in

recent years, reflecting a wider schism between the rabbis and
followers of Modern Orthodox Judaism toward LGBTQ issues.
An open community
Israel News All
The main drag in the Long Island hamlet of West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz
Almost everyone in West Hempstead knows each other. Set over

only 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers), this hamlet is home to
some 19,000 residents (according to the 2010 U.S. Census).
The Long Island Judaica store in West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz
There isn’t much here except a busy thoroughfare that residents

have to cross cautiously (Kelemer himself was seriously injured in a
hit-and-run incident while crossing the road in December 2016).
Very few businesses line the main drag: There’s a pharmacy,
Hunki’s Kosher Pizza, Bageltown, a kosher Chinese restaurant
named Wing Wan, and an art and music space called Creative
Corner. Long Island’s population is about 12 percent Jewish, with
some 46,000 of them living in the area of Oceanside, Long Beach,
West Hempstead and Valley Stream. Although locals describe West
Hempstead’s Jewish community as “live and let live,” some
residents told Haaretz that they feel the local rabbinical leadership
is pushing a hard-line that does not reflect how open the Orthodox
community is and actually runs counter to it.
Israel News All
A sign outside Creative Corner in West Hempstead marking the 50th anniversary of
Woodstock in August. Credit: Gili Getz
The rabbis “have such a hold over the businesses,” says B., a
longtime West Hempstead resident who spoke on condition of
anonymity, explaining that the local religious leaders are in control
of some restaurants’ kosher certifications. (Many of the locals who
spoke to Haaretz for this story only agreed to speak if they were not
publicly identified, fearing for their social positions and, in some
cases, their jobs in this small Orthodox community.)
— Advertisement —
“The community is very accepting, but I think that when the

leadership feels certain pressures they will succumb,” says one man
who has been living in West Hempstead for 15 years. “People have
rights — regardless of sexual orientation, regardless of gender,
regardless of anything, people have rights,” he says.
“To the religious world it’s

Israel News All a very sensitive subject, so part of me
understands,” adds B., talking about the decision to remove the
newspapers. “But some community leaders believe they are one step
away from God, so therefore they get to make those decisions. To
me, they are just ordinary people that have a title.”
Pattern of behavior
When news of the newspapers being removed reached Shlomit

Metz-Poolat — a 48-year-old who has spent half her life in West
Hempstead and identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community —
she had to check for herself.
“I was driving home, so I stopped at the pizza store. I look in the

window: All the [other] newspapers are there, the Jewish World is
MIA,” she recalls. “I go to the Chinese restaurant: I look in the store,
I ask around, the Jewish World is MIA.
Shlomit Metz-Poolat with a copy of the Long Island Jewish World newspaper that was withdrawn from
local restaurants, August 2019. Credit: Gili Getz
“I knew exactly which article it was because I had seen it. I realized
that it was pulled,” she says. Although Metz-Poolat, who works as a
prosecutor, was outraged by the attempt to hide the publication, she
says she wasIsrael

not surprised.
News All She had experienced that same
exclusion firsthand.
The daughter of a rabbi, she grew up in a kosher, Shabbat-keeping

Modern Orthodox household and in 1995 moved to West
Hempstead with her husband. About 10 years later and after having
a daughter, she came out as gay.
Despite the huge upheaval in her circumstances, Shlomit felt

accepted by the local community: Her now ex-husband showed
great understanding and they were successfully co-parenting their
daughter; and she had met a new partner, Sally Poolat.
It was only after Sally and Shlomit married in June 2014, and
Shlomit changed her surname to Metz-Poolat, that things changed:
Her membership to Congregation Anshei Shalom — led at the time
by Rabbi Yehuda Pearl (aka the man who introduced Americans to
hummus), who was about to pass the torch to Soniker — was
revoked. Both rabbis had made the decision together, they informed
Metz-Poolat in an email.
Many conversations and meetings followed. The status of Metz-

Poolat’s membership became the talk of the town and people in the
community felt they had to do something. A dozen very strongly
worded letters were sent to the rabbis, pleading with them to
reverse their decision and praising Metz-Poolat for her active role in
the community.
“Our shul has always been that one place that opened its doors to
everyone, no matter their eccentricities, quirks or differences,” one
..
congregant Israel
wrote.News
“There
All are decisions that are either right or
wrong,” another stated, adding, “Does ostracizing fellow Jews feel
right?” A third congregant even quoted Aristotle: “‘It is the mark of
an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
accepting it.’ Please keep Anshei [Shalom] the welcoming place it
has always been.”
But despite the pleas, the rabbis did not move. Metz-Poolat applied
for membership at Young Israel of West Hempstead, but Kelemer
refused to go against his colleagues and would not accept her as a
member.
Throughout all this, Sally Poolat, who hadn’t changed her surname,
was still allowed to stay at Congregation Anshei Shalom.
'The community is not the rabbis, and

the rabbis are not the community'
Israel News All
Shlomit Metz-Poolat's blue Mazda car with the "HYPHN8ED" license plate and an
Israeli flag on the trunk. Credit: Gili Getz
“It definitely came as a surprise that the rabbis behaved this way —
because the community didn’t,” Metz-Poolat told Haaretz one
Sunday morning in Bageltown. “The community is not the rabbis,
and the rabbis are not the community.”
Her social circle in West Hempstead makes her feel very “sheltered
and safe,” she says. Indeed, strolling around town with Metz-Poolat,
it is easy to witness this welcoming environment: people hug her, sit
down to talk with her and stop her on the street to say hello.
After being kicked out of the synagogue, Metz-Poolat made multiple

attempts to reach out to the rabbis, only to be told that their
position had not changed. As we walk past Congregation Anshei
Shalom, she points at the synagogue entrance, looking inside the
glass door. “You see this? That menorah over there behind the
glass? My family donated that.”
And so, after being removed from her and her family’s historical
house of worship as a member, Shlomit Metz-Poolat decided to turn
her pain into action.
‘The gay shul’
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-war-over-the-future-of-judaism-rages-in-this-small-long-island-community-1.7908007?fbclid=IwAR1… 10/25
Israel News All
Wing Wan kosher Chinese restaurant in West Hempstead. Its basement has been the unlikely home to Kehilat Ahavat Yisrael.
Credit: Gili Getz
In December 2017, Metz-Poolat opened her own synagogue. Since it

doesn’t have a building of its own, the congregation — which offers
people an alternative to the more established ones in town — meets
once a month in the basement of Wing Wan, the local kosher
Chinese restaurant.
According to its Facebook page, Kehilat Ahavat Yisrael is a “Modern

Orthodox warm, friendly and inclusive shul. ... All are welcome!”
Prayer books were donated by a synagogue in New York City; two

Torah scrolls were donated by rabbis in Queens and Hillcrest; and a
community member even helped build an ark for the scrolls.
Although some in the community have labeled Kehilat Ahavat

Yisrael “the gay shul,” Metz-Poolat insists it is a Modern Orthodox
synagogue, and many of those who attend are not from the LGBTQ
community.
“It has a 4-foot mechitza [partition between men and women] that
[Orthodox rabbis] would be happy about, [and] where the only
thing women do is a prayer for the State of Israel and a prayer for
the Israel Defense Forces,” she explains. “The other thing is that
women can come up, at the end of davening, when everything is put
away, and give a Dvar Torah.”
Israel News All
Shlomit Metz-Poolat holding a framed copy of a newspaper story about the opening of Kehilat Ahavat
Yisrael in West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz
The congregation hopes eventually to be able to have a permanent

home and meet each week.
“There is not a person in any shul that hasn’t done something —

committed a crime, gotten arrested, lied, violated halakha [Jewish
law] in some way or another,” says Metz-Poolat. “I think the overall
issue in the community is that there is a perception that this
particular ‘sin’ is to be targeted because it’s perceived as
undermining the heteronormative family structure.”
But Metz-Poolat isn’t the first or only LGBTQ person to come out in
West Hempstead’s Modern Orthodox community. Residents can
name close to 10 other openly gay or transgender neighbors: Some
remain in the area while others have moved away, driven out by
people they describe as hard-liners.
C., a gay man who used to live in West Hempstead with his
husband, spoke to Haaretz about his experiences there. The couple
had lived in the town since 1999 and used to attend Kelemer’s
Young Israel of West Hempstead synagogue.
“People could figure it out, but we didn’t come out and say we were
gay,” says C. “Nobody really questioned it. I’m sure people
understood, but we didn’t really have an issue up until 2014.”
That was when

IsraelYoung
News Israel
All had a guest speaker deliver a speech
aboutRosh
Elections
“traditional family values.” C. says his husband “is a lot more
Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians
outspoken than me and he got up and objected to it — and, more
than that, he outed us. We both walked out of the synagogue.”
After the incident, some community members even visited the

couple’s home to express their support and, after things cooled off,
the couple met with Kelemer.
“He basically requested that we apologize to the [congregants who

were there] and to the speaker,” recounts C. “He also mentioned —
which we found very obnoxious — that he took a poll of the people
who were there to see if they would agree for us to keep going there
or not, and basically the poll said they would like us to stay if we
apologize.”
But that wasn’t an option for the couple, who decided to resign and
change synagogues. They started to go to Congregation Anshei
Shalom, which was still led at the time by Pearl, with Soniker as his
second-in-command.
Things were OK for a year, C. says, but then that changed: When
one of them asked to lead a service and read from the Torah scroll,
he says that Pearl denied the request on the basis that “openly gay”
people cannot do so.
Eventually, they got tired of fighting and moved away.
“We moved for a number of reasons, but certainly being in that

community didn’t help as far as wanting to get out of there,”
explains C.
They now attend a conservative synagogue in their new city and feel
very welcomed. “They know we are married, we have a family
membership and we’re the stars over there — they love us,” says C.
Open discussions wanted
According to a survey published last November by Eshel, an

organization that works to make Orthodox communities more
LGBTQ-inclusive, most Orthodox parents of LGBTQ children wish
to see changes in how rabbis discuss the issue in their synagogues.
Israel News All
Customers waiting at Hunki’s Kosher Pizza in West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz
Over two-thirds of those surveyed said they wanted broad, positive

and open discussions about LGBTQ issues, including education
programs for synagogue members. In addition, 28 percent said they
wished their rabbi would no longer made negative statements about
LGBTQ Jews from the pulpit.
But the conservative approach of West Hempstead rabbis isn’t just

toward LGBTQ people. Metz-Poolat recalls that, about 10 years ago,
Congregation Anshei Shalom stopped letting girls speak in
synagogue for their bat mitzvahs.
“Rabbi Pearl said ‘never again,’” she recalls as she stands outside the
synagogue. “So in this shul, no woman can go up onto the bima and
speak to the congregation — and nobody says anything.
“They are hurting members of their own community,” she adds.
Some hard-liners in the community actively have tried to block

Kehilat Ahavat Yisrael from assembling. People have threatened
Wing Wan’s owner that they will boycott the restaurant if she
continues to allow Shabbat prayers in her basement.
“I feel that ifIsrael

you News
want to
Alllabel them as sinners, then you should
support them having a prayer service so they could get forgiveness
— that’s the flip side,” says community member Norman Kaish.
“You should be putting your arms around them, not pushing them
away.”
Each month, between 50 and 100 people show up for Shabbat

services. But as a result of the pressure on the restaurant,
congregants have now decided that, after the High Holy Days, they
will start meeting at each other’s homes for services, until they can
raise enough funds for a permanent building.
Metz-Poolat says the people who attend Kehilat Ahavat Yisrael are
not coming because they don’t have an alternative: Some just prefer
the more intimate and quiet setting it offers. “There was a need to
create a shul here,” she says. “God willing, it should live on [after
I’m gone]. And, quite frankly, because I’ve become so controversial,
if I step away maybe people will stop calling it the gay shul.”
Shlomit Metz-Poolat with Lanie Kaish in Bageltown, West Hempstead, August 2019. Credit: Gili Getz
Norman Kaish’s wife, Lanie Kaish, praises Metz-Poolat and Poolat,

calling them “the kind of people you want in a community. These
are the kind of people that make what I believe an Orthodox
community Israel
should be,” All
News she says. Another member of the
community, Yaffa Lamm, says simply, “Whether you are a man, a
woman, gay or straight, people are people. Let’s just get to know
[people] for who they are.”
'These are the kind of people that

make what I believe an Orthodox
community should be' Lanie Kaish
One woman living in West Hempstead tells Haaretz the issue of
Metz-Poolat’s membership was poorly dealt with. “I understand
why they did what they did; I don’t agree with it, I don’t think it was
right, but it’s a commentary on how the general Orthodox
community is handling this,” she says. “They don’t know how to
respond — and the first response is fear.
“The rabbis need to get together and figure this all out,” the woman
adds. “I think they just don’t know what to do yet.”
‘The Jewish mafia’
When the rabbis ordered that the Jewish World newspaper be

removed from various restaurants, they faced no pushback.
Residents in the area explain that the leaders’ influence on the
community is significant.
“When a rabbi orders or requests something, it’s not a choice —

because in two seconds they could say ‘Don’t eat at so and so,’” says
Metz-Poolat. “The mere threat, even if it’s self-imposed ... the mere
sense that the rabbi of this community had asked that it be pulled,
[the store owners] are not gonna get into trouble.”
“It’s the Jewish mafia,” says B., outside of Congregation Anshei

Shalom. “They have a grab on the community and under no
circumstances are they going to let go. They will fight to the last
breath.
“If something doesn’t fit with their philosophy, they are not just
against it, they are dead set against it,” B. continues. “When
Mashiach comes — and I hope one day he does and I’m here — he’s
gonna look at the people and say ‘You got it all wrong!’”
Another resident, A., recalls

Israel News All that it was “very upsetting” to hear
about the attempt to censor the local newspaper. “Nobody has a
right to tell me what to read or not to read,” he says. “Nobody has
the right to go into public stores and remove newspapers that they
find objectionable.”
Norman Kaish, meanwhile, believes the rabbis “are trying to act on

the behalf of the community from a religious standpoint, without
giving enough thought to what the lifestyle needs to be or can be for
a gay family. What bothers me is the fact that it reflects negatively
on the children in those families and the damage that is being done
to them doesn’t seem relevant, it’s unfair.”
“I don’t see much sensitivity, and I’m surprised about that,” he

adds.
Community members in West Hempstead understand that there are

complexities that come with leadership positions and many agree
that the rabbis are “stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
“They don’t want to be seen by the Orthodox Union or Yeshiva

University as the community that endorses the gay lifestyle,” says
Norman Kaish. “If you don’t want to admit that you’re gay or live a
gay lifestyle, then they have no problem. But I don’t know of any
Orthodox community in the United States where this is endorsed.”
Eshel Executive Director Miryam Kabakov, who learned of the

newspaper incident after A. called her organization’s “warm line” to
report it, says they deal with pushback “all the time.”
Israel News All
The offices to the Elections

Long IslandRosh
Jewish World. Credit: Gili
Hashanah Netanyahu Getz - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians
Orthodox Rabbis who have hosted or tried to host events with Eshel
were either boycotted or threatened with a boycott by their local
board of rabbis, she says. “It’s all peer pressure and social control,”
she says..
“That’s what is holding back the Orthodox community,” Kabakov

continues. “It has nothing to do with whether parents want to
understand their kids, or love their children or make their Orthodox
community more open. It’s that the rabbis are complete cowards,
understandably so.”
Metz-Poolat notes, meanwhile, that she feels “part of the rabbis’

jobs is to keep their jobs.”
“I think that’s really what it is, and it’s sad because it becomes
almost like a mob mentality.
“This is the largest civil rights movement of our time and they can’t
seem to figure out a way to do anything with this situation other
than literally trying to erase the article, make it go away,” she says.
“I try to explain to people that these rabbis are their employees,” she
adds. “You can take a position that says “Not our shul, not our
rabbi” — but people are scared.”
Room for inclusion
While some Orthodox rabbis are still struggling with acceptance of

LGBTQ members, Kabakov says there has been a “tremendous
amount of growth” in the Orthodox Jewish world overall.
Some Orthodox rabbis have also found ways to include LGBTQ

members in Jewish life, like Rabbi Ysoscher Katz.
Katz, who was raised as a Satmar Jew, is now head of Talmud

studies at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a rabbinical seminary in the
Bronx. He believes the inclusion of LGBTQ Jews is an issue that can
be solved within the framework of Jewish law, and that rabbis have
a responsibility to do so.
“It’s important because

Israel they are Jews, they are in our community
News All
and they want to be members — so of course we have to make them
as welcome as possible,” Katz tells Haaretz in a phone interview. “I
don’t see why a queer identity should matter whatsoever in
determining the place of someone in the shul. They identify as
queer, big deal! Why is that interesting?”
But beyond making LGBTQ Jews feel at home in Orthodox

synagogues, Katz says the alternative to inclusion is far worse and
does a disservice to the idea of continuity that the Jewish
community at large is so attached to.
“Not doing that not only means that we are losing the percentage of
the community that is queer, but we’re also gonna lose a significant
number of the rest of the community that’s not queer but has
[shaped] their attitudes toward the tradition at large on how much
the community can be inclusive,” he explains.
“That doesn’t mean that we should take the tradition and turn it
into a pretzel just so every young millennial should be happy,” he
adds. “But it does require us to kind of really go back to the books
and look closely and see: maybe we overlooked some aspects of this
conversation?”
Katz believes Orthodox rabbis have to do the “hard work” and find a
way to progress on this issue, which is “not going to go anywhere.”
He also understands that some older rabbis or, even more, some
young new ones are nervous about taking the plunge because of
external pressures.
“The establishment is invested in the status quo, and if you’re a

rabbi you look behind your shoulder and you’re always afraid that
some big leader is going to swoop into the community and say
you’re not qualified.
“You can still hold onto all the principles, all the values and add to
that the additional value of creating a home for the queer
community,” he concludes.
Not less than, just different
West Hempstead residents

Israel News All Sheera and Curtis Sobin, whose son
came Rosh
Elections
out as gay some years ago and has since moved away from the
Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians
community, are “Eshel parents.” Once every three months they
attend a meeting organized for others like them — a support group
that has really made a difference in their lives.
The Sobins would like to see Orthodoxy come up with a solution for
LGBTQ Jews. “Why is this so different than any other mitzvah in the
Torah?” asks Curtis Sobin. “Rabbis aren’t excommunicating people
who don’t keep Shabbos. Why is this the only thing that becomes
the rallying cry around which someone can be included or excluded
from the community?”
“Anything that is in the outside world is in our world, and saying

that it’s not — or hoping that it’s not, or wishing that it’s not — is not
going to make it so,” adds Sheera Sobin. “And it is way more
prevalent than you think it is.”
Metz-Poolat adds that rabbis just “don’t know what to do with”

people like her. “We’re not less than, we’re just different. And
Orthodox Judaism doesn’t know how to deal with different. Nobody
had electricity 3,000 years ago, so halakha figured out how to deal
with electricity on Shabbat,” she points out. “So this is one more
thing that we have to figure out.”
Shlomit Metz-Poolat's pet dogs Kona, front, and Lizzie. Credit: Gili Getz
“And I’ve tried to create the same thing that heteronormative

families have,” she adds. “There is a consideration from the LGBTQ
community to the Orthodox world that we are not getting in return.”
Moving onIsrael News All

Despite the heartwarming support from community members, after
almost 25 years in West Hempstead, Shlomit Metz-Poolat and her
wife made the difficult and painful decision to move. They would
have done so sooner if it wasn’t for Metz-Poolat’s daughter, Joely,
now 18, who loved growing up there.
In August, just two days after Joely left West Hempstead to make
aliyah to Israel as a lone soldier in the Israeli army, her parents
started packing up their large house to begin a new life 30 minutes
away in Great Neck.
“I’m tired,” reflects Metz-Poolat. “There are an unbelievable amount

of signs that this is not where I should be. I need a shul and I need
to be part of a community, I need to walk in the door and have a
place I can go every week. I don’t want to be left out.”
Haaretz reached out to both Soniker and Kelemer for comment on

the incident involving the Jewish World newspaper. Both denied
they had any objections to the front page article on LGBTQ Jews.
“I personally don’t, nor do the other rabbis, have any issue with
your article at all,” Kelemer told Haaretz. “There was no attempt on
the part of the rabbis to ask the Jewish World to be banned in any of
the synagogues, nor in the kosher establishments.
“If there is any issue that we have with the Jewish World, quietly
and privately, that’s something we will be taking up with them
directly — but the issue doesn’t revolve around your article,” he
added in a phone conversation. “It’s possible that somebody stepped
into one of the establishments and they have expressed a
disagreement ... but from the community rabbis — which means of
the synagogues — there was never any attempt, nor do we plan to
make any attempt, to boycott the paper.”
Congregation Anshei Shalom’s Soniker also wrote in an email that

“there was no request to remove the paper from the kosher
establishments by any of the rabbis of our community.”
When Haaretz made a second attempt at an interview about the

community in general, Soniker said it was his “general policy not to
discuss issues with

Israel the press.”
News All Kelemer did not respond. Pearl was
also contacted, but declined to comment.
A source in the Long Island Jewish World, who said they were not
authorized to speak and wanted to remain anonymous, told Haaretz
that of the 50,000 to 80,000 newspapers circulated to various
communities on a weekly basis, West Hempstead represents only an
“insignificant” number of about 300 papers.
“There are multiple LGBTQ people sitting in multiple Orthodox

synagogues throughout the metropolitan New York area, some
known to rabbis in the Orthodox community and some not known,”
the source said. “That was the comeback that I got from multiple
people outside of West Hempstead when that cover [with the
Haaretz LGBTQ-related article] came out.
“I truly believe that for all Jews around the world, newspapers and
media are a vehicle for enlightening those who choose to participate
in Judaism,” the insider added.
The Jewish World’s publisher, Jerry Lippman, is a vocal advocate

for independent journalism. In a New York Times article in May
1984, he expressed the importance of having freedom to thoroughly
investigate and report controversial issues. None of the synagogues
in West Hempstead advertise or financially contribute to the
privately owned weekly.
New life, new synagogue
As she moves to a new community, Shlomit Metz-Poolat hopes to

put the drama behind her. She has already secured membership in a
synagogue near her new home. But for her, moving away and letting
the issue go was not an option.
“Yes I’m leaving, but you just can’t leave and know that you’ve
contributed to harm by remaining silent,” she says. “I want to
vocally, respectfully and forcefully get people to hear that change
has to come. And it doesn’t have to come at the cost of halakha; it
just has to come at the cost of people being kind. I don’t think that’s
such a difficult thing to ask for.”
Five years after

Israelbeing
News rejected
All by her synagogue, Metz-Poolat has
even found a way to joke about her experience: Her car, a blue
Mazda, is tagged with custom-made license plates featuring just one
word: “HYPHN8ED.”
Shlomit Metz-Poolat's blue Mazda car with the "HYPHN8ED" license plate and an Israeli flag on the
trunk. Credit: Gili Getz
Danielle Ziri
Haaretz Correspondent
Comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
Sort comments by Newest first Expand all
3 Retired Professor Of Law | 21:20 1 0

The behavior of these rabbis is sad but common-place
2 Piberman | 00:10 3 1
LI Jews
1
1 Drew |
Israel07:05
News28.09.2019
All
2 1
I’m shocked, shocked to find that Rabbis are behaving
badly.
Trending Now
Rosh Iran's The Jews Sissi's 'Jewish As Netanyahu

Hashanah Audacious Aren't to Mom': Rare Begins His
2019: The Year Saudi Attack Blame for Protests Chip Third
Racism Will Require Jesus' Death, a at Egyptian Campaign,
Divided the Israel to Bible Scholar Leader's Iron Rivlin Readies
Jewish People Upgrade Its Asserts Hold on Power the Ejector
Missile Seat
Defense
Israel News All
FAQ | Contact us | Newsletters | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy |

Cancellation of Digital Subscriptions | Management | Editorial |
Accessibility | Advertise on Haaretz.com |
Israel News Archaeology Columnists ‫הארץ‬

Israel Election 2019 Life Chemi Shalev ‫חדשות‬
Middle East Science Allison Kaplan ‫תרבות‬
Jewish World Sports Sommer ‫ספורט‬
U.S. News Anshel Pfeffer ‫ספרים‬
World News David Rosenberg ‫סרטים מומלצים‬
Culture
Business ‫קפטן אינטרנט‬
Eurovision 2019
‫?למי להצביע‬
Books Opinion
2019 ‫בחירות‬
Partnerships Travel Editorial
Haaretz Labels Theater Cartoon
Israel Real Estate Movies and TV Letters to the Editor TheMarker
Start-Up Nation Food ‫חדשות‬
Central Poem of the Week ‫שוק ההון‬
Special Coverage
Sushi Restaurants in ‫צרכנות‬
Tel Aviv ‫נדל"ן‬
Finance
35 ‫ת"א‬
5 ‫מדד תל אביב בנקים‬
‫מניית טבע‬
‫מניית טאואר‬
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, and analysis from Israel and the Middle East.
Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East,
including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs,
international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved

A War Over The Future of Judaism Rages in This Small Long Island Community - U.S. News

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A War Over The Future of Judaism Rages in This Small Long Island Community - U.S. News

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

9/29/2019 A war over the future of Judaism rages in this small Long Island community - U.S. News - Haaretz.

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

352 Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

NEW YORK — As the world marked the 50th anniversary of the

In mid-July, and unbeknownst to Haaretz, the article was reprinted

NEXT Star Wars Mania! Star Wars Merchandise Reve…

Stacks of the newspaper were removed from local restaurants and at

It is a stance that has alarmed many West Hempstead Jews in

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

Almost everyone in West Hempstead knows each other. Set over

The Long Island Judaica store in West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz

There isn’t much here except a busy thoroughfare that residents

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

“The community is very accepting, but I think that when the

“To the religious world it’s

When news of the newspapers being removed reached Shlomit

“I was driving home, so I stopped at the pizza store. I look in the

says she wasIsrael

The daughter of a rabbi, she grew up in a kosher, Shabbat-keeping

Despite the huge upheaval in her circumstances, Shlomit felt

Many conversations and meetings followed. The status of Metz-

'The community is not the rabbis, and

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

After being kicked out of the synagogue, Metz-Poolat made multiple

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

In December 2017, Metz-Poolat opened her own synagogue. Since it

According to its Facebook page, Kehilat Ahavat Yisrael is a “Modern

Prayer books were donated by a synagogue in New York City; two

Although some in the community have labeled Kehilat Ahavat

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

The congregation hopes eventually to be able to have a permanent

“There is not a person in any shul that hasn’t done something —

That was when

After the incident, some community members even visited the

“He basically requested that we apologize to the [congregants who

Eventually, they got tired of fighting and moved away.

“We moved for a number of reasons, but certainly being in that

According to a survey published last November by Eshel, an

Israel News All

Elections Rosh Hashanah Netanyahu - Election Egypt - Sissi Syria Assyrians

Customers waiting at Hunki’s Kosher Pizza in West Hempstead. Credit: Gili Getz

Over two-thirds of those surveyed said they wanted broad, positive

But the conservative approach of West Hempstead rabbis isn’t just

“They are hurting members of their own community,” she adds.

Some hard-liners in the community actively have tried to block

“I feel that ifIsrael

Each month, between 50 and 100 people show up for Shabbat

Norman Kaish’s wife, Lanie Kaish, praises Metz-Poolat and Poolat,

'These are the kind of people that

When the rabbis ordered that the Jewish World newspaper be

“When a rabbi orders or requests something, it’s not a choice —

“It’s the Jewish mafia,” says B., outside of Congregation Anshei

Another resident, A., recalls

Norman Kaish, meanwhile, believes the rabbis “are trying to act on

“I don’t see much sensitivity, and I’m surprised about that,” he

Community members in West Hempstead understand that there are